Money Today reporter Lee So-eun | 22.04.2024 05:43
Editor’s Note | Let’s revisit today yesterday that made us laugh and cry through the news.
/Photo = Getty Image Bank 8 years ago today, on April 22, 2016, Mr. Oh, a 53-year-old man, returned from dinner out with his family, fell asleep, and was unable to wake up. He did not smoke during his life and the cause of his death was “nicotine addiction”. The nicotine detected in his body was at a level that would not have been found even in someone who had smoked cigarette after cigarette all his life.
The so-called “Namyangju Nicotine Husband Murder Case” was the first nicotine murder case in Korea. It had a huge impact on society and led to copycat crimes.
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Even though I didn’t smoke a single cigarette, “a lethal level of nicotine was detected”
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After returning from a dinner out with his stepdaughter, who was 22 at the time, Mr. Oh drank beer in the living room, went to his room, took some sleeping pills and fell asleep.
The report was received 3 hours and 30 minutes after Mr Oh’s wife, Song (48 years old at the time), returned home. Ms. Song said, “It was time for my husband to put eye drops, but he didn’t wake up, so I opened the door, went in, shook it, and found that he wasn’t breathing.”
Although the cause of death was unclear, Mr. Song stubbornly refused to perform an autopsy on Mr. Oh. For this reason the autopsy was carried out only 58 hours after death. In mid-May, about a month after the death, the National Forensic Service determined that the cause of death was nicotine poisoning.
The lethal dose of nicotine in the blood is 3.7 mg/l, but 1.95 mg/l of nicotine was detected in Oh’s blood. Considering that the autopsy was carried out only 58 hours after death, it was estimated that the concentration at the time of death had reached 7.58 mg/L.
However, because Mr. Oh never smoked during his life, the cause of his death left deep doubt. During the three years of health checks, all nicotine tests came back negative.
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Husband dies, wife contacts funeral home instead of calling 112
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On the day of Mr. Oh’s death, there were some questions about Mr. Song’s actions. After her husband’s death, instead of calling 119 or the police, the first thing she did was search for “funeral in 3 days” and contact the funeral home.
The funeral director instructed Ms. Song, who said, “I have to organize my husband’s funeral,” to “call 112 first,” and only then did Ms. Song report the matter to the police.
Mr. Oh’s funeral was rushed through without any of his colleagues or acquaintances knowing about it. As soon as Mr. Song’s body was delivered, he underwent cremation procedures, and only after the cremation was the news of his death delivered to Mr. Oh’s company. Unfortunately, Oh’s parents had died long ago and there were no relatives in contact.
On May 2, 10 days after her husband’s death, Ms. Song inherited a property worth 1 billion won that her husband had accumulated and earned by selling real estate such as an apartment. Inheriting Oh’s car, clearing out financial accounts, paying off severance pay and claiming insurance reimbursements were all done in an instant.
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A planned murder conspired with a lover… Pay off your lover’s debt with your inheritance
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Behind Mr. Song, who won the prize, was his lover, Mr. Hwang (46 years old at the time). At that time, Ms. Song went to her husband’s insurance company and her company with Mr. Hwang to request severance pay and insurance money, and this was decisive.
Two years before the accident, Mr. Hwang met Mr. Song while traveling in Macau, China, while working as a guide at a travel agency, and continued a relationship. Not only did he never have a steady income or job until he was 40, but he also had poor credit due to gambling debts.
It was revealed that Ms Song lived in two houses with her husband, living as a couple on weekends and renting a rental apartment just 15 minutes from her home, where she and Hwang lived as a couple on weekdays. This case was a murder case orchestrated by Hwang to allow Song to embezzle her husband’s property.
Ms Song met her husband through a marriage information company in 2010 and they have lived together since 2011. In February 2016, two months before Oh’s death, Song registered her marriage without her husband’s knowledge. This is because you cannot receive inheritance in a common-law marriage, but if you register your marriage, you gain inheritance rights. Immediately after the incident, Ms. Song withdrew 130 million won from her husband’s bank account and transferred 105 million won to the account of Hwang, her lover.
On Hwang’s cell phone and PC were records of searches for “nicotine murder method,” “lethal dose,” and “funeral procedures” prior to the time of Oh’s death. It was even revealed that 20 mg of a 99% pure nicotine solution had been ordered via an American site 15 days before the incident.
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“There is no direct evidence, but circumstantial evidence is clear” Sentenced to life imprisonment
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After a police investigation, Song and Hwang were arrested on charges of attempted murder and fraud on August 21 of the same year, but did not confess until the end.
As a result, the current professor of clinical pharmacology had foreseen the possibility that the nicotine had been secretly administered and the investigating prosecutor stated in the indictment that “a large quantity of zolpidem and nicotine had been administered in an unknown manner” .
In the first trial on September 7, 2017, Mr. Song and Mr. Hwang were sentenced to life imprisonment. The court explained the reason for the sentence, stating: “There is no possibility of external intrusion or suicide and, although there is no direct evidence, the circumstantial evidence is very clear and the motive and method of the crime is very despicable and elaborate” . , typical of strangulation, and there is no remorse.”
Both the accused and the prosecution appealed, but in the second trial held in July 2018 the same life sentence as the first trial was imposed. The criminals appealed, but the appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court in November 2018, and the life sentences were upheld for Mr. Song and Mr. Hwang respectively.
After the incident, the direct purchase of nicotine solutions abroad was restricted. Since the incident had a great impact on society, copycat crimes involving murder using nicotine occurred in 2017 and 2021.
[저작권자 @머니투데이, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
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